Justice for A Girl of a Tender Age by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith (Cameroon)

 

In Girls of Tender Age, Mary-Ann Tirone Smith (Cameroon 1965-67) fully articulates with great humor and tenderness the wild jubilance of an extended French-Italian family struggling to survive in a post-World War II housing project in Hartford, Connecticut.

Hanging over this American childhood is the sinister shadow of an approaching serial killer. The menacing Bob Malm lurks throughout this joyous and chaotic family portrait, and the havoc he unleashes when the paths of innocence and evil cross one early December evening in 1953 forever alters the landscape of Smith’s childhood.

Mary-Ann, who wrote the first published Peace Corps novel, Lament For A Silver-Eyed Woman in 1985, writes in this memoir of her childhood friend who was killed by a serial killer in her hometown, and how Mary-Ann helped to achieve justice for her childhood friend Pidgie D’Allessio who identified the killer who had also attached her.

What follows is Mary-Ann’s account of the many years to achieve justice and how it was achieved.

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JUSTICE FOR PIDGIE D’ALLESSIO
The full epilogue of Girls of Tender Age
January 31, 2022

On August 28, 2021, Governor Ned Lamont hosted a ceremonial signing of a bill called, “Justice for Pidgie D’Allessio” at the Connecticut State Capitol and presented a check to Pidgie’s son on her behalf for the reward offered for the capture and arrest of a serial killer who murdered Irene Fiederowicz, a fifth-grader at Mary Hooker School.

Thirty-eight years before, Pidgie’s willingness to identify and then testify in court at the trial of a brutal serial killer, who also attacked her, meant that he was captured, arrested, tried and convicted. Pidgie claimed the three-thousand-dollar reward that had been offered by Governor John Lodge, but was denied on baseless reasoning. When she appealed, she was denied again and this time received a lecture from the judge that the reward should come in the form of her performing the duty of all citizens.

A video of the event — filmed on a moment’s notice under the Capitol building’s 24-foot ceilings and walls of gold statuary, with no mike and the sounds of a supportive baby — was accomplished by videographers Chris Borst and Rita Giacomazzi under untold pressure. Jere Smith edited it — a task akin to untangling a hundred pounds of spaghetti. The short video is: https://youtu.be/QsOgB7qts4g (Left to right in the video: Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz; the editor of Girls of Tender Age, Elizabeth Stein; writer Mary-Ann Tirone Smith; Governor Ned Lamont; Pidgie’s son and daughter-in-law, and Representative Ed Vargas, whose district was once Pidgie’s home and Tirone Smith’s. Note: Pidgie D’Allessio is a pseudonym to protect her identity.)

Representative Vargas had enthusiastically introduced the bill and then ran roughshod through the General Assembly until he saw that every member understood the importance of the bill, and to the courage and bravery of Pidgie who had been mistreated and humiliated by the state.  Because of Ed’s passion and determination, the House vote to pass the bill was unanimous. There were just three nays in the Senate. (The Grinch’s heart of ice comes to mind.)

Among those present for the signing ceremony were Debra St. Germain, who roused the south end Hartford community to create boundless enthusiasm for the bill; Laurie Bompart, Manager of Barnes & Noble/UCONN, who reintroduced the memoir with a heartwarming bookstore event; writers Rebecca Rice and Christine Lehner; Hartford teacher Corey Moses, whose “Hartford History” students at Bulkeley High School (Pidgie’s alma mater) deluged the Governor’s office and the Connecticut General Assembly with moving, emotional and beautifully written letters in support of the bill. Way to go kids! Also, Mary-Ann’s husband Charlie Bimmler, who got everybody to Hartford, found a place to park — no mean feat — and continues to lovingly abide being married to an obsessed writer.

In an unforgettable moment, Governor Lamont, Lieutenant Governor Bysiewicz, and Representative Vargas apologized to Pidgie’s son for this travesty of justice perpetrated by the state of Connecticut’s Supreme Court, known then as the Supreme Court of Errors and also called — rightly so — the Court of Supreme Errors. All of us who worked to make the day happen will never forget the height of emotion we experienced when Governor Lamont signed the bill. Rebecca Rice explained the excitement and tears: “Books change lives; Girls of Tender Age changed the law.”

Final note: Chris Borst a student at Branford High School, said after the ceremony that even though his class had visited the Capitol in Washington, DC, it wasn’t till Pidgie’s day at the Connecticut Capitol that he came to see and understand the intimate workings of government and the heroics of political leaders.

THE EPILOGUE

I thought I’d finished writing Girls of Tender Age ten years ago. Then an email appeared in my inbox one morning with a subject line so unexpected, so shocking, really, that it took me a few minutes to dare touch my fingers to the keyboard. First I went and poured a second cup of coffee, took a couple of gulps, sat down at my desk again, and opened the message.

My story was not over. A new ending was out there, a miserable one. I bought a new notebook and a box of Pilot G-2s, #10, bold. I write all my first drafts in longhand, indecipherable scribbling to anyone but me.

Girls of Tender Age centered on the murder of Irene Fiederowicz in Hartford, Connecticut. Irene was my friend, my neighbor, and my classmate. The last time I saw her was the day we went on our field trip to the Hartford Electric Light Company. We’d been studying electricity and learned that the first city in the United States to carry electricity to streets and homes was Hartford.

That morning our class climbed onto a chartered bus, so happy to have a day off from school. A field trip. We didn’t really care where we were going. Irene and I had planned to put a banana in our lunch bags. At lunchtime, we all ate our sandwiches, and Irene and I peeled our bananas together. Her mother allowed her to bring a box of cookies to share. Irene passed the box around our table. All of us enjoyed our trip. I don’t remember learning anything about electricity. The employees saw to us having a good time. Before we left they make us hot fudge sundaes with heated-up Hershey’s syrup rather than hot fudge.

That night, Irene’s brother Fred went to play basketball at our local elementary school. The gym opened for various activities in the evenings. Irene’s mother sent her off to the corner grocery store to pick up potatoes for dinner that she would bake before Fred got home. Irene could replace the box of cookies she and her classmates had emptied at the Hartford Electric Light Company. It was December 9th, 1953.

When Irene left on her errand, her mother told her it looked like rain, and if the rain started, she should tie her scarf over her hair. Dusk had darkened the sky, but several neighborhood children were playing outside.

Irene stopped at a house a few doors away to see if another friend of ours wanted to come along, but the girl’s mom said, no, that it was going to rain. Irene walked along, playing for a while with the children she met along the way. And then she went to the store.

She never came home from the store. The clerk was the last person to see her alive. Her mother called the police. All night long the police looked for Irene. So did her mother and her brother Fred, who took turns searching for her and waiting by the phone. Early the next morning, in a backyard a few houses from mine on Nilan Street, a quarter-mile from her home, Irene’s body was discovered by the family who lived there. On her walk home, her killer had grabbed her and dragged her to that backyard by her scarf, raped and killed her. The police would find the grocery bag with the potatoes and the box of cookies at the spot where he’d grabbed her.

Two weeks before Irene was murdered, a senior at Bulkeley High School, one of three Hartford high schools, had been viciously assaulted a few blocks from where Irene died. The girl survived the attack. In my book, I gave her the name Pidgie D’Allessio to protect her identity.

The killer had demanded both girls not tell anyone what he’d done to them. Irene refused. Her last words reflected extraordinary bravery. She said, “I’m going to tell my mother.” He tightened the knot of her scarf he’d twisted around her neck until she stopped struggling.

In what could have been the last seconds of Pidgie’s life, he gave her the same chance to live that he had Irene. But Pidgie was not a little girl, she recognized her only hope was to do what he said. Pidgie promised him she wouldn’t tell. He loosened, then removed her scarf twisted around her neck, and then began to act as if she were his date. She went along with his wanting to walk her home. Then he ran off. The minute she stumbled through her front door, she fell into her mother’s arms.

Her parents called the police. An officer arrived. Sitting between her mother and father on the sofa, Pidgie gripped their hands. It was difficult for her to speak; she was in pain from her physical injuries and her emotional ones. But she managed to tell the officer what the man had done to her. He then asked Pidgie what the marks were on her neck, and asked too, “Do you have a boyfriend?”

His report stated that there was no rape. Today, with the passage of the 2012 revision to the Uniform Crime Report, wherein the United States Department of Justice has re-defined the definition of rape; the acts Irene and Pidgie suffered meet the definition.

The killer was Robert Malm recently paroled after serving five years of a seven-to-nine-year prison term for an attempted attack on another child in New London, where he served in the Navy. He’d gotten time off for good behavior. His parole board found him a job in a Hartford suburb.

Pidgie read of Irene’s murder in Hartford’s now-defunct evening paper, the Hartford Times. Pidgie knew that the man who had come within moments of murdering her had killed the little girl.

On December 11th, Pidgie and her parents went to police headquarters in downtown Hartford. She repeated all she’d told the officer who had come to her house, and added more details she’d come to recall, including the brand of cigarettes he smoked; a pack of Old Golds had fallen out of Malm’s pocket while he brutalized her. The police knew the man too. There had been several complaints of a man loitering in Pidgie’s and Irene’s neighborhoods. The police had been watching him.

With Pidgie’s information in hand, the police would soon take Malm would into custody. They questioned him for days about the attack on Pidgie. They got nowhere.

Governor John Davis Lodge offered a reward of $3,000 for information leading to the arrest of Malm.

The police asked Pidgie’s father if he could bring her back to headquarters. They wanted to see if she could pick Malm out of a line-up. Pidgie agreed, returned to headquarters, and did in fact, point at Malm standing in the line-up as the man who attacked her. Then she was asked to go with a policewoman into a room where Malm was present. He would be asked a question and Pidgie was to listen to his answer. If she recognized his voice as that of the man who attacked her, her identification would be validated. At first, both parents refused to allow it. Then her father said she could do it if he went into the room with her. The police would not allow it but said a policewoman would be by her side, and they promised that Pidgie would be in the room with Malm for just a few seconds.

Pidgie went into the room where he was sitting with a police officer. At a signal, the officer asked him a question just as the door opened and Pidgie and the policewoman stepped in as he answered and then they backed out. Malm never reacted in such a way that showed he recognized who Pidgie was.

Pidgie signed a paper that Malm’s voice was the voice of the man who attacked her.

What more turmoil could possibly be expected of this girl? A lot more.

The police then questioned Malm further, not for the attack on Pidgie, but for the murder of Irene. Malm ceaselessly protested any and all accusations.

On December 15th, the police promised Malm a bench trial rather than a trial by his peers if he would confess to Irene’s murder. They explained that a bench trial meant three judges would try him. The judges would not be affected by the details of the crime as would emotional jurors. He would likely escape the death penalty. Malm grabbed at the bargain. He then took the police behind the Nilan Street yard. He showed them where he’d left Irene’s body, saying he restrained her for about half an hour, during which time he tortured, raped, and murdered her.

Because the police did not believe what Pidgie had initially told the officer following Malm’s attack, she could not save Irene. But Malm’s capture, prosecution, guilty verdict, sentencing, and execution were entirely the result of Pidgie’s profound courage and the fortitude she maintained to bear witness against him, face-to-face, at his trial. All accomplished by a schoolgirl in one selfless and courageous act after another.

Robert Malm was put to death by electrocution eighteen months later.

Writing Girls of Tender Age

When I came to write the memoir, my research revealed that Pidgie had claimed Governor Lodge’s offer of reward, but her claim was denied by the Connecticut Supreme Court. A court reporter would have transcribed those proceedings, but trial transcripts were copyrighted to the reporters. The reporters could sell copies of the transcripts, and if no one was interested they would often throw them away. They were not obligated to store them. Such was the case with the transcript I’d hoped to find. But then I learned through an attorney friend that if Pidgie had gone on to file an appeal, the appeal transcript would become available to the public and would include the facts of the initial ruling.

At the Connecticut State Library, I scrolled through court records on microfiche for days on end. Then a copy of Pidgie’s appeal transcript appeared on the screen in front of me. The undeterred Pidgie had indeed filed an appeal.

The basis for the denial of her original claim for the reward was appalling. The lead judge in her case was a Connecticut blue blood, the aggressively conservative Raymond Baldwin, former governor of Connecticut and later a United States senator. He determined that an offer of a reward was a contract, no different from a business contract. Since the reward — the contract — was dated after Pidgie had given the police the details of the crime against her, and one day after she picked Malm out of a line-up, Baldwin ruled she did not claim the reward in response to the offer; the offer hadn’t been made yet.

According to Baldwin, Pidgie did not abide by the conditions of the contract. And where did the governor’s offer of reward make such a stipulation? Nowhere. The two other judges witnessing the proceedings concurred with him.

Plain Terms

Undeterred, Pidgie’s parents filed an appeal on her behalf. Baldwin denied her again in a determination beyond appalling; the decision he wrote and read in court was criminal, perhaps even unconstitutional. His basis for the denial of the appeal was a legal construct called “plain terms.” It means that the plain terms of the contract—words whose meanings are clearly understood—should be read literally, in a way that the attorneys who wrote the text of Governor Lodge’s reward offer did not intend. In fact, the legal definition of “plain terms” states that such a construct cannot be applied if the results are cruel and absurd; two perfectly plain words whose meanings are clearly understood. Baldwin applied both in his ruling. The same two witnessing judges concurred as they had earlier.

This concept of “plain terms” has been called a travesty of justice by legal scholars, and recently, a fiction — a myth — by the Dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, Erwin Chemerinsky, in an article he wrote that appeared in the ABA Journal. In arguments before the Supreme Court of the United States, he has demonstrated that “plain terms” relies on a court’s requirement to consider only the understood meanings of words, rather than the meanings intended by the lawmakers who wrote them. In Pidgie’s case, Baldwin actually invented a plain term, calling an offer of rewarding a contract, which it is not.

The “plain terms” basis for a court decision is used almost exclusively to protect businesses from lawsuits, to allow attorneys representing those businesses to take advantage of victims who do not have the means to afford a defense against the so-called “plain terms” argument. Records show that ninety percent of these victims will not even appear in court, a slam-dunk for the attorneys. Business is business, money is money, and the victims of legal thievery are expendable. There are those who see themselves as above the law, cruelty, and absurdity their pleasure.

The text of Baldwin’s repulsive conclusion to his argument was, as follows:

An offer of reward … is not the recognition of an equitable duty of the government to the informer, but a mere act of public policy … whose terms are wholly within the discretion of the government. Whoever [makes a claim for such an offer] must bring himself within its terms. Failing to do that, his compensation is the consolation which comes to every citizen from the discharge of a public duty … the common obligation of all …. Courts must apply legislative enactments [meaning Governor Lodge’s reward offer] according to their plain terms.

Baldwin had seen fit in his parting shot to lecture Pidgie with condescending derision, berating her for not appreciating that her consolation should not come from a reward, but from her public duty, which according to him, is an obligation. But Pidgie had been consoled by performing her public duty, consoled by her hope that her testimony would prevent what happened to her from happening to other girls. This despite her public duty requiring she describe what a savage psychopath had done to her in front of a court packed with the general public.

If Baldwin had ever experienced anything of the horror that Pidgie had, perhaps he would not have relied on such cruel and absurd admonitions.

Where does the Constitution say that the words he used to slander Pidgie were permissible? It doesn’t. In fact, asserting false, deceptive, misleading, or unconscionable means as were perpetrated by Baldwin is prohibited by law.

Other’s experiences

After my memoir was published, I received hundreds of emails and notes from people with a connection to Irene, or to Hartford. What was overwhelming were the heart-wrenching letters from women with no connection except that they were also raped as children. These women never told anyone what happened to them because of the humiliation they felt. They told me.

The memoir, they said, relieved them of the burden of shame they carried. Good God, shame. Little girls who never received comfort, let alone medical attention because society led them to believe that they’d done something shameful. And there were also women who did what Pidgie had, and were faced with similar victim-shaming questions like the one the police asked Pidgie, the most common: “What were you wearing when this happened?”

But Pidgie knew she should not feel shame, and she knew her parents would help her do what was right. They did.

The shocking email

And so, I received that shocking email two years ago, in March 2019. The subject line: I AM PIDGIE D’ALLESSIO’S SON.

The youngest of Pidgie’s three sons, Joseph F., wanted me to know that he’d never heard of the crime against his mother, and only learned of it when, out of curiosity, he was checking a census for family names. His mother’s maiden name showed a connection to Malm’s case. Somehow — and I can’t imagine how — he came to tell his mother he needed to speak to her about something in her past. Now, the two haven’t stopped speaking about what happened to her, how it affected her and their loved ones.

Pidgie told Joe that when her book club was planning to discuss Girls of Tender Age, she realized that her rape was integral to the book. She quit the club. She never read the book, but a decade later her son did and then sent me an email that led to such a heart-wrenching moment in my life:

Dear Ms. Tirone Smith,

My wife and I have just finished reading your book, Girls of Tender Age. Thank you for writing it. It has affected me deeply, and my understanding of who my mother is.

I first learned of Robert Malm a few years ago when I was searching my mother’s maiden name hoping to find her in the newly publicized 1940 census. My mother and her family never mentioned Malm or her involvement in the case.

In some very profound ways, my mother has remained a teenager her whole life. I now understand why her development was stifled. She is 84 years old and will answer my questions about this terrible time directly and eerily without the emotion one would expect. I am pretty sure she distanced herself from emotions all those years ago.

I hope it is rewarding for you to know how impactful your work is and how telling Irene’s story continues to heal generations who weren’t even born at the time of her murder.

With gratitude and admiration,

Joe F.

So moved by his words, I sent a request to John Fonfara, State Senator, West Hartford, District 5; and Jillian Gilchrest, State Representative, presently representing Pidgie, and Representative Vargas who represents the district where Irene Fiederowicz was murdered, and where Pidgie D’Allessio survived a brutal attack. It was the district where I grew up.

It was Representative Vargas who moved mountains and he didn’t let the pandemic stop him; he introduced a bill to the House a year ago, “An act requiring the payment of a reward to Patricia ‘Pidgie’ D’Allessio.” (Proposed Bill No. 5088. See the entire wording at cga.ct.gov. Go to “Bills Quick Search.”)

Pidgie D’Allessio was raped twice, once by an inhumane sadist, and then again by the state of Connecticut. This courageous teenager, who acted on her obligation to society — a society that treated her with obscene scorn — deserves a second reparation from Connecticut: an official apology from Governor Ned Lamont.

Joe’s mother has agreed to let me make public her travails beyond the horror I described in Girls of Tender Age. I’d like to thank her for that and for allowing me to know that the real Pidgie grew up to live a productive life, to marry a good man, and to raise three fine sons. I wish her well.

 

A compendium of the groundswell of support that arose from this action:

On October 19, 2019, Connecticut Assemblyman Edwin Vargas, who represents District 6, the south and south-central part of Hartford, including the South End neighborhood where Irene, Pidgie, and I grew up, sent me an email thanking me for telling him about this effort. This led to a chain of communications and actions supporting my mission to see justice for Pidgie.

On January 9, 2020, Hartford News published an article by Anne Goshdigian, “Justice for Pidgie D’Allessio.” Ms. Goshdigian’s take on the story was brilliant.

A month later, I received an email from Debra St. Germain:

Hello Ms. Tirone Smith,

I am writing today as an executive board member of the Southwest-Behind the Rocks Neighborhood Revitalization Zone, or, the neighborhood where you and Pidgie grew up.

Thank you for making us aware of the injustice done to Pidgie by the state of CT.

At our meeting on Thursday, we voted to assist you in as many ways as we can to secure Pidgie her just and much overdue reward. The President of our Board immediately reached out to Sen. Fonfara and Rep.Vargas.

I am happy to report that Rep.Vargas has responded. “I support giving Pidgie the reward she earned. I’ll push for action in the upcoming session.”

I will be your contact as we will be honored to see this through with you.

Sincerely,

Debra St.Germain

 

A new push

Debra St. Germain was on the move! She has just let me know that the Board President, Kathy Evans, on the members’ behalf, has now requested the Hartford City Council get on board.

Representative Vargas expressed his intention to Debra St. Germain to seek action from his fellow legislators in the coming session. (Keep those letters flowing, people, especially to Senator Derek Slap and Representative Gillian Gilchrest, who represent the West Hartford district where Pidgie now lives. Pidgie worked in the West Hartford public schools for many years until she retired.)

On Feb. 13, 2020, Representative Vargas, a man I’ve never met, never laid eyes on, never spoken to, texted me to say that he’s in the process of introducing a bill to the legislature giving Pidgie the reward she’d been denied. Joe will tell his mom the news this weekend. He said that she is only now beginning to recognize the bravery and courage she demonstrated as a teenager.

Feb. 14, Bill No. 5088 is on the legislative calendar: “An Act Requiring the Payment of a Reward to Patricia ‘Pidgie” D’Allessio.’ ” House Majority Matt Ritter is noted on the bill as co-sponsor. There will be a public hearing on March 13, 2020, at 11:30 am. COME ONE, COME ALL!

Attorney Richard Baltimore, Chief Advisor and Legal Counsel to House Majority Leader Matt Ritter, delivered a letter from me to Governor Ned Lamont’s office with a request that the Governor/Senior Advisor review the efforts toward justice for Pidgie.

Debra attended a meeting along with Governor Lamont. She spoke to him about the bill.

Hartford Attorney Timothy Hollister, who is keeping his late son Reid in our hearts forever with his vision, now reality: to see to our precious teenagers’ safety behind the wheel. Attorney Hollister is responsible for nudging Leader Ritter.

Laurie Bompart, Manager of the UCONN/Barnes & Noble Bookstore in downtown Hartford, continues to spread the word via social media, increasing word-of-mouth interest.

Connecticut librarians across the state have been spreading the word to their patrons since the get-go after I sent a copy of the epilogue to as many of them as I could reach. (Libraries have always been my refuge; librarians my heroes.)

The more-than-willing cooperation of Pidgie’s son, Joe, continues to keep my engines charged.

I have sent letters to the principal of Bulkeley High School and the pastor of St. Augustine’s Church in Hartford, asking them to encourage their student body and parishioners to look at the issue at hand and to consider contacting their Connecticut General Assembly representatives and Governor Lamont. (Pidgie, her siblings, her cousins graduated from Bulkeley and were parishioners of St. Augustine’s. Her father and uncle were custodians at Bulkeley, her aunt worked for many years in the cafeteria.)

So at this point, WE HAVE TRACTION! But what do we still need? If Representative Vargas’s bill passes, an apology from Connecticut has to go hand-in-hand with that passage. Ergo, to all you letter-writers, and those of you who might be thinking about contacting the state representatives listed in the conclusion of the epilogue, please call Governor Lamont’s office, email him, write to him–anything!

With the encouragement of Debra, Corey Moses, Lead Teacher at Bulkeley High School has introduced into his social studies class, “Hartford History,” a new unit centered on Pidgie D’Allessio’s struggles and heroism, guiding his students as they write letters to members of the General Assembly and Governor Lamont. Let us be ever-thankful for teachers like Mr. Moses. Flexibility isn’t a simple thing when you have to follow a stringent curriculum. Keep up those juggling acts, sir, and GO KIDS!

Thank you everyone for all your advice, support, encouragement, and help.

The Bill

FINALLY, despite the naysayers, a bill was introduced to the Connecticut legislature by Representative Edwin Vargas, the 6th District, where Pidgie was born and raised in the shadow of her church, St. Augustine’s, and her Alma Mater, Bulkeley High School, Hartford, Connecticut. Thank you Representative Vargas for your heroic action; for introducing the legislation supporters strived for, and Pidgie could only dream of.

Matt Ritter signed on as co-sponsor of our bill.

Ergo: Giant thanks are in order to the Bulkeley students who wrote to Leader Ritter with guidance from their teacher, Corey Moses, asking him to support our bill. I got to see the letters. They were brilliant. Several students joined me in asking for an apology from the state of Connecticut. While we wait to find out when our hearing date will be, I hope all of you will find the time to ask our governor, Ned Lamont, to make the apology an official one. It will mean so much to Pidgie, once a Bulkeley student like you. Here is the governor’s email link:

https://portal.ct.gov/Office-of-the-Governor/Contact/Email-Governor-Lamont.

(If you’d like to share your last name, Naythan, please let me know: mary-anntirone@gmail.com)

The text of the bill: State of Connecticut. General Assembly, February Session, 2020.

Proposed Bill No. 5088. Referred to Appropriations Committee.

Introduced by Representative Edwin Vargas, 6th District.

An Act Requiring The Payment Of A Reward To Patricia “Pidgie” D’allessio.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

That the state budget is amended for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021, to require the state to pay the reward of three thousand dollars offered for the apprehension of Robert Nelson Malm to Patricia “Pidgie” D’Allessio for her role in his capture and conviction.

Statement of Purpose

To compensate Ms. Patricia “Pidgie” D’Allessio for her role in the apprehension of Robert Nelson Malm.

The text was eventually worded: To recognize and compensate Mr. Patricia “Pidgie” D’Allessio for her role in the identification, arrest, and conviction of serial predator Robert Nelson Malm, who sexually assaulted Ms. D’Allessio and murdered eleven-year-old Irene Fiederowicz.

March 13, 2020 Scheduled committee meeting

The appropriations committee was to hold a public hearing at the legislative office building before acting on pidgie’s bill, March 13, 2020.

But now the corona virus has reared its head. Just days before our hearing, the Capitol building in Hartford, as well as the Legislative Office Building were closed in order to have a deep clean. (How do you deep clean a building made of marble?) All committee meetings were canceled. I suspect the meetings will eventually be held, but it’s likely the public meetings will no longer be public. This means we might have to send in the comments we wanted to make at our Appropriations Committee hearing. Will keep everyone posted. If anyone reading this hears further news, please let me know: maryanntirone@gmail.com.

July 4, 2020

It looks like nothing will happen before 2021.

If anyone would like to send a message to Pidgie, feel free to send it to me at maryanntirone@gmail.com and I will ask her son, Joe, to forward it.

June 12, 2021

HURRAH! The bill has just passed both houses ot the Connecticut General Assembly, and we await the Governor’s signature.

August 26th, 2021

The signing occurred.

From Molly Friedrich, literary the agent who sold Girls of Tender Age to Simon & Schuster: How often does a book, any book, possibly alter an individual life? That doesn’t alter an unglamorous life, doesn’t publicly alter anyone’s career or agenda? That’s you, Mary-Ann, all the way. You did it!

Thanks, Molly.